There is a variety of issues with education right now, and one of the big ones is how people are trained to become teachers. It's not so much making it tougher to enter, it's making sure it's properly done. That's why the "real internship" (not student teaching, which is good, but far too short) is an important step. First, they get invaluable experience that they would never get in college. Second, and more importantly, they find out if it's really the right job for them. The number of teachers who quit within the first three years is quite high. Some type of bar exam, if properly done, would make sure that people actually want to teach before they enter their own classroom.

Just to add, I'd be happy to take whatever exam they institute... or better yet, they can come observe me teaching if they really want to properly evaluate.

Rylan wrote:I considered teaching, but I couldn't get past the fact that high school girls would want in my pants and I didn't want the harassment.

do you even think before you post anymore? very disappoint.

LOL, I found Rylans post to be a lot funnier than the obviously bitter, jealous post from another individual in a separate thread, but I guess that's only because Rylans post was just making fun of himself and wasn't a personal attack.

MWB wrote:There is a variety of issues with education right now, and one of the big ones is how people are trained to become teachers. It's not so much making it tougher to enter, it's making sure it's properly done. That's why the "real internship" (not student teaching, which is good, but far too short) is an important step. First, they get invaluable experience that they would never get in college. Second, and more importantly, they find out if it's really the right job for them. The number of teachers who quit within the first three years is quite high. Some type of bar exam, if properly done, would make sure that people actually want to teach before they enter their own classroom.

Just to add, I'd be happy to take whatever exam they institute... or better yet, they can come observe me teaching if they really want to properly evaluate.

Well said. I would add that the high dropout rate in the first three years is due to the fact that in many schools the inexperienced teachers often get the heaviest workload, often teaching the least motivated students (what a former colleague of mine called "the grunts"). This can be overwhelming for those who just haven't had the experience to develop their repertoire of teaching skills. And of course low pay doesn't help retention.

I always think it's funny when people claim that teaching is an easy profession because you're done at 3:30 and you have the summers off. If it's such an easy profession, why do so few people consider going into it?

ExPatriatePen wrote:LOL, I found Rylans post to be a lot funnier than the obviously bitter, jealous post from another individual in a separate thread, but I guess that's only because Rylans post was just making fun of himself and wasn't a personal attack.

Rylan wrote:I considered teaching, but I couldn't get past the fact that high school girls would want in my pants and I didn't want the harassment.

do you even think before you post anymore? very disappoint.

LOL, I found Rylans post to be a lot funnier than the obviously bitter, jealous post from another individual in a separate thread, but I guess that's only because Rylans post was just making fun of himself and wasn't a personal attack.

i think i looked over there, many posters loling, here, only one. just saying.

Rylan wrote:I considered teaching, but I couldn't get past the fact that high school girls would want in my pants and I didn't want the harassment.

do you even think before you post anymore? very disappoint.

No not really. But the real reason I decided against teaching is that its too stressful.

I get asked all the time about my move away from teaching, "Do you like what you're doing now better than teaching?" I always answer, "It's much more work, much less stress." Seems as though the two don't go together, but they do. When teaching I woke up and the first thing on my mind was, "I wonder what *insert trouble maker* is going to do today, I'm pretty sure I have everything together today, I think I got all those papers graded, did I set up everything for lab 4th period, I have an IEP meeting today I better read over that paperwork during lunch, there's a basketball game tonight my students would probably like it if i went, is there scholastic quiz practice this afternoon, etc etc." Now I just wake up and go to work with a list of what I should get done. If it gets done, awesome that's a great day. If half of it gets done, it's a good day. If barely any of it gets done, oh well I have tomorrow or the weekend. I work more hours now than I did as a teacher, but it certainly doesn't feel like it.

Rylan wrote:I considered teaching, but I couldn't get past the fact that high school girls would want in my pants and I didn't want the harassment.

do you even think before you post anymore? very disappoint.

LOL, I found Rylans post to be a lot funnier than the obviously bitter, jealous post from another individual in a separate thread, but I guess that's only because Rylans post was just making fun of himself and wasn't a personal attack.

i think i looked over there, many posters loling, here, only one. just saying.

Sarcastic wrote:Did you guys read this? This is the profit business education system in U.S.. Very indicative of how things operate in the US, whether we're talking education or healthcare or whatever else. It's never about how to improve the country, it's all about how much money an owner can make.

Moving this over from the political thread. This is a major reason why a completely privatized education system would never work. Schools wouldn't look for the best ways to educate kids; they'd look for the ways to get the most kids to attend their school.

This video really hits home this time of year when so much energy and focus is put into test preparation and review. Over the next week I won't see one of my science classes at all, strictly because of testing.

Tough to say, as I don't know a whole lot about it. If schools are truly under-utilized, then I think you have to look at consolidating. However, it seems that some of that information are based on 30 kids per classroom, which is too high. There is a push in a lot of big cities to shut down "underperforming" schools. Those schools are generally the ones with a lot of kids who have uninvolved parents. Sending them to a different school will not have a positive effect on anyone.

An all-time high number of student loans in the U.S. are late or unpaid, reports a presumably perturbed Department of Education. Given that almost a third of 20- to 24-year-olds are unemployed, that's not exactly surprising. But also given that unpaid student loans total $1 trillion right now, there's some reason for chagrin. That puts student loans in the No.2 spot of consumer debt, right after home mortgages. And a recent study from Fidelity found that 70 percent of the Class of 2013 is graduating with college-related debt, to the average tune of $35,200. Whew. So ... congrats, grads?